Merck Keytruda Approval Boosts Market Activity Ranking 72nd

On June 13, 2025, Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) experienced a slight decline of 0.13% in its stock price, with a trading volume of 10.53 billion, ranking 72nd in the day's market activity.

Merck received FDA approval for its flagship cancer drug, Keytruda, to treat a broader range of patients. The approval is based on data from a late-stage trial that studied Keytruda in patients before surgery, followed by continued treatment after surgery. This expanded use includes adult patients with resectable locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) whose tumors express PD-L1.

Keytruda has been approved as a single agent for neoadjuvant treatment, continued as adjuvant treatment in combination with radiotherapy (RT) with or without cisplatin, and then as a single agent. The pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-689 trial showed that Keytruda reduced the risk of event-free survival (EFS) events by 30% in patients whose tumors expressed PD-L1 compared to the standard of care.

This approval marks a significant milestone for Merck, as Keytruda becomes the first perioperative anti-PD-1 therapy for resectable head and neck cancer. The trial results demonstrated a median EFS of 59.7 months in the Keytruda arm versus 29.6 months in the standard of care arm, highlighting the drug's efficacy in improving patient outcomes.